My experience with the term "service"..

My never ending diet…

A couple of months ago, I decided to lose 5 kilos! So I was referred by a friend to a dietician that we shall call Kristo, in Achrafieh next to Hotel Dieu de France Hospital.

Did you know that dieticians are not doctors!!! I personally didn’t know that. As I walked in I noticed that they are displaying diet food, chocolates bars, powder juice etc., along with price tags on each item!!! I honestly didn’t dare to ask if they are selling this stuff at the “clinic”.

The appointment was at 4: 30, and of course, they let me in at 5:15, noting that I called before going, and got firm assurances that there would be no delay since I was overloaded with work.

The dietician is a very friendly person, young and easy to relate too… but I was not impressed by her technical skills. First, when she explained about the sugar in the fruits I was not convinced, so she decided to convince me through a presentation on Google! I love Google (I use it every day), don’t get me wrong, but shouldn’t I trust more my dietician? Second she took my weight with my clothes on. Third, I have heard about dietician who perform food tolerance tests, but she didn’t seem into that, and her approach was very basic, not personalized and very commercial; yet her fees are the considerate high. I am (now) a firm believer that she repeats the same speech to everyone.

At the end of our friendly meeting, she called her assistant (not a dietician) to fill me in on a diet that I should follow for one week (here is my 1st diet). Afterwards Kristo will be sending me a tailor-made diet, knowing that she didn’t ask any personal questions to be able to prepare a diet JUST FOR ME! But I said to myself that she must know what she is doing, after all she is an expert…

While leaving, the receptionist directly scheduled the follow- up appointment after 1 month and half. I still remember the date April 13!

After 10 days of one first meeting, no one called, so I called them (after all, the first diet was supposed to be valid for one week), and introduced myself and briefed the receptionist that I am waiting for MY DIET as promised! Unexpectedly, the receptionist took the initiative and told me:” no problem you can continue on the same diet.” It was absurd, so I replied:” excuse me but are you a dietician? I prefer that you ask Kristo”. She disappeared for a couple of seconds, and the verdict was of course the same: ”Continue the same diet, and we will be sending you a new one in the coming days.” I don’t want to argue whether she asked Kristo or not, or if this is a usual activity since they are always late. I honestly don’t know.

After 2 days, they called to inform me that my diet is ready (Here is my 2nd diet); I asked them to email it but they insisted that I pass by to the clinic in order to go over it together. I passed by, to my surprise the diet was not ready. After a good 15 minute’ wait, the assistant managed to print a cheap black & white piece of paper, (not tailor-made at all) and handed it over to me! She said “Read it and tell me if you have any questions!” to which I replied:”I will be sitting with kristo To go over the diet, right?” She replied:”no need, I can answer your questions, but read it first.” I asked a couple of questions, nothing major and left. On my way back I was a little bit puzzled and frankly annoyed

On April 11, just 2 days before the famous follow-up appointment, they sent me a reminder SMS. On April 13 the receptionist calls me and said “we regret to inform you that Kristo is sick she can’t see you today, but we will be calling you in a couple of days to reschedule”

Don’t be shocked, but they just never called back. Just like that! They vanished!

My friend tells me, just to tease me that I no longer exist in their database. But think about it, seriously, I am just a number they probably erased me. this same friend went 5 years ago to a dietician just for one time, and since then every year she calls him on his birthday. Can you Imagine!

Maybe kristo has gotten too big to care about individual customers, or maybe they think If you get mad and go away, there will always be another customer right around the corner….

I like to think that no matter how big or small, a company’s first priority is to satisfy its customers…And what Kristo, the assistant and the receptionist don’t know is that I am stuck with my diet, since I don’t know what is the alternative maintenance diet that I should follow, and I don’t want after everything I went through to eat normally and regain weight. In addition I am not very keen to visit a new dietician!

Maybe I should really consider Google to be my new dietician after all kristo is using it as support 😉

Does it ring a bell?

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15 Responses

Poor google, your deitician, news agency, search engine, docotor, tips bucker carrier, photos supplier, engineer, etc.. But what your dietician wasn’t expecting a blogger patient who will talk about her experience and show the people how unprofessional she is. Thank you joelle for sharing this. One more reason to rub my belly..

U should work as a journalist! Your blogs highlight unfortunate problems Lebanese people face due to lack of respect! My opinion is that you should mention the names of these businesses (the restaurant, the dietician,….) to teach them a lesson: they cannot treat customers this way and get away with it!
Keep up the good work!

my dear Jo!!! first of all i think it s your weight that made the dietitian not give your file a lot of weight:)… she probably thought, what the hell…this woman needs a diet??!! 🙂
anyway, to go back to serious stuff…i like what you re doing, you re voicing out our daily frustration with how low the term “services” has dropped lately!

you should take this a step further: magazines, newspapers, etc…. but watch out, you might eventually be banned in many places!:) a photo of you at the door, with a big sign: SHE S NOT ALLOWED IN OUR ESTABLISHMENT !:)

as for dietitians, doctors, health care providers/workers, etc…and as the burden of years and along with it the light of wisdom, weigh heavier on my shoulders, i find that a lot of these people are prisoners of what they learned in school…it is up to the patient/customer/case to educate themselves, learn more about their case, broaden their horizons while seeking professional help…i dont want to sound too dark, but in a way, we are alone in the world of medical assistance, a dr is not a god, and for sure neither is a dietitian,..the more we learn, the better we can take care of ourselves, of course with the assistance of a medical professional person…
thank god for google and his sisters/brothers :)….
i rest my case!

you made me laugh, as usual, maybe the dietician said when she saw me: this women needs another kind of “professional help” not mine… but actually when she saw me she said you need to loose at least 5 Kilos….

Mohammad in addition to what you are saying, and i know you are a great supporter of Alternative Medicine/Natural Health Practitioner.. maybe we should seriously try it and see how it works, yet stay alert since the practitioner can be as well charlatan and imposter..

P.S: someone told me that the day i will be banned from places this means i achieved my goal with this blog….

I totally agree with T. Forget about dieticians and diet, you simply don’t need it. Why not go with google??! After all, it’s free of charge and can give you all the info needed at this stage, you don’t need more, believe me, you are just great as you are.

Hi Joelle, I’ve started reading your flight delay post then this one. They are really interesting and believe me you’re not the only one facing such bad customer service. I will tell you later about some bad experiences I had with sunglasses companies, electronics, etc… But note that some companies, like KFC (since we are talking about diet :D) really care for their customers up to a point that they called me at 4 AM this morning asking me if I received my order within the 45min timeframe and if liked it!!!!??? I only remember inneh nasharet 3ordo 3al telephone!!!
I believe that with the rise of social media, companies will consider putting more efforts in this because everything goes online instantly… Keep it up and take care 🙂

oh my, almost everyone who goes to a dietitian never goes for the follow up:p! Either way, well i don’t advise you to go on google, there’s a lot of crap there, honestly :p we use google for some stuff, la2 ktir eshya mech some bas it depends on the source. so when u get ur info make sure the url ends up with .edu, .gov or .org or check the credentials of the person talking abt nutrition. + fi ana w @StrawberryBlu w @Point_ALaLigne we can help on twitter or by mail if u need any info so don’t hesitate, it’s free of charge cz as2al shi when u get crappy advice or service in general, goodluck dieting and nice blog, congrats it’s my first time here:p